r/WASPs

I don't know sh*t about insects.

Is this a bee nest or wasp nest?

I live in Quebec, QC, Canada

Me and my bfs family were in Chicago over the weekend and we passed a pastry stand, it had easily 20 yellowjackets flying around and crawling all over the pastries and breads. My bf bought one of the croissants and ate about half, his stomach started hurting not very long after. I’m curious if this is because of all the wasps crawling all over everything since none of it was covered, or if it was just something else. I was also shocked NOBODY got stung, even when we waved our hands over them to get them away! We thought they were sweat bees based on how docile they seemed and they sort of have similar color patterns when you don’t look very hard lol. Picture of one of the little cuties added!

EDIT: I said we thought they were sweat bees, but I actually meant hover flies, we just call them sweat bees in my family, I looked it up for clarification and realized I misspoke!

I've been stung many times in life (6 times just this year), I've been stung by bumblebees, honeybees, yellowjackets, and paper-wasps.

Never have I ever had more than mild swelling, and even then I don't usually react at all.

This time however, a paper wasp (either P. fuscatus or P. exclamans given where I live) got me on my pinky and the entire left side of my hand swelled to the point I couldn't move said pinky anymore.

Is there a possible explanation for why this particular instance caused such an intense reaction? Particularly considering I've been stung by both those species before (also in the finger) and not reacted this way.

So cute, he made me smile so much :)

Just moved to a new home and have a couple of these around my home. Wanted to know if I should take these down?

This guy hopped on the hood this morning and rode with us to school. I’ve seen them out during the morning hours. Can anyone identify?

A yellow jacket eating blackberries.

Hello people that live in my phone. I have a mystery and I haven’t been able to solve it myself. These Polistes annularis showed up here about 2.5 weeks ago and really haven’t left. Usually they number 7-10 but in the last few days I’ve seen the numbers as low as 3 like in this video. They are not building any kind of nest. They are not scraping for loose paint on the fixture. I’ve left them small bowls of water and a pineapple core thinking they’d enjoy either the pineapple juice or the gnats it brought in but they ignored it. I offered them a small caterpillar but they had no interest. They’re perfectly docile. I walk beneath this fixture at least a dozen times a day and my head is maybe a foot or so from them. I’ve seen them have disagreements and tumble down to the ground as a pair but then they separate and fly back up. It’s always on this one angled corner of the fixture, never anywhere else. This is happening in west central Georgia, USA and I’d like to help them if they need assistance. The first day they showed up I left the light on all night to discourage nest building but they didn’t seem to mind that. This porch houses many gorgeous orb-weavers in the fall and that time is rapidly approaching. We name those ladies and enjoy their company but they’re not going to show up with these fellas around. First and foremost, does anyone know what they’re doing? Is it an island of misfit toys situation and they’re a bunch of homeless males? #wasps #entomology #wasp #polistes #insect

I’ve seen these in our yard a few times prior but they’re now appearing in numbers all over these onion blooms lately. I live in northwestern Washington. Just wondering what they are, really interesting looking coloration contrasting with the plentiful number of yellow jackets we get around here…thanks!

2nd post about this. Never seen this wasp before. Orange head with a yellow/black abdomen. Yellowjacket/hornet like body structure. <1” long. Found in northern Utah.

Ichneumon shot on my phone 🤳

My spicket was right below where this nest was and I went in there to hook it up and turn it on and off about 5 times. On the 5th time I ended up getting stung about 7 times. Didn’t even know they were there. Pretty wild

Never seen this one before. Yellow/black abdomen and an orange face. Found it dead in my garage in UT

i’ve been trying to identify this insect living in the eave of my shed. I initially thought it was a blue mud wasp because that’s what it looks like, but I know that those bugs don’t live in a colony like setting and they are not aggressive. which these exhibited both of those behaviors to my belief. they appeared almost overnight and whenever I would try to open the door to the shed, they would fly out all aggressive like. There was constantly one posted on the outside kind of guarding the entrance. Please help me figure out if I discovered some sort of new behavior or if this just isn’t a blue mud wasp